Sex isnâ€™t chromosomes: the story of a century of misconceptions about X & Y

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Â Ah, but thereâ€™s a weasel word there: â€śnormalâ€ť. And with sex chromosomes, perceptions of â€śnormalâ€ť play a huge role â€“ not only in what we think that they are and do, but in the very existence of the term â€śsex chromosomesâ€ť. This is the subject of Sarah Richardsonâ€™s revelatory bookÂ Sex Itself: The Search for Male and Female in the Human Genome, a history of the science of sex and the invention of the sex chromosome concept â€“ one that Richardson argues we should reject entirely as a mistake that has led to bad science, societal prejudice and widespread misunderstanding of what sex really is.